“A day when there is no football to report” TalkSport. 12.30pm 2 August

By Tony Attwood

So off we go again. We’ve had the preliminary warm-ups, now for the warm up.

And of course we had to have the boorish gibberish from the broadcasters – it is part of the tradition. Today’s highlight as shown in the headline was said by a show host at around 12.30pm today. Sometimes I wonder what makes these guys tick.

Anyway, in case you are new to Untold, let me explain what goes on here. Drew and myself are season ticket holders at the Ems, but live in Northamptonshire, which is about 80 miles or so north of the Ems (or six light years in cultural terms). So we get to the games, but when it comes to two days in London consecutively, something has to give.

Meanwhile Ian who lives in Leicestershire, although we don’t hold that against him, has given up his season ticket of late because of the call of his family, and the need to take his two young sons with him to the games. So he attends via the family membership arrangements.

Walter meanwhile lives near Antwerp and is Chairman of Arsenal Belgium, attending matches in his official capacity. Don lives in Canada. Dom, not to be confused with Don, lives in Plymouth, although we seem to have lost touch with Dom (who did last season’s match previews) over the summer, so for now match previews are going to be done by Billy the Dog, who lives in the fast lane of the North Circular Road.

Now it would indeed be sensible if those of us running a blog on Arsenal lived closer to the ground, but we don’t and because of that none of us is going to be at the Ems today. But Ian, Drew and I, plus family members are going tomorrow. So today, its coverage from my sitting room, and tomorrow, Walter takes over from Belgium with his over-heating laptop.

So what of today?

Mr Wenger said, as reported on Arsenal.com, “It’s always an interesting test for us because for us it’s an indicator of where we are in our preparation. It’s good to come back to competition and it’s good to have two days to see our level. It’s also an opportunity for our fans to see the team and the players who we bought.”

The official site says Calum Chambers and Mathieu Debuchy will play at some stage, and Sanchez should come on as a sub. But there are injuries before we have even started: David Ospina is out with a thigh injury.

Joel Campbell however should also be playing. Although he’s not a new transfer, as the site says, it feels like he is.

Benfica always win their league or come second or third – I think it is written into the constitution of Portugal. I believe the last time Ian and I saw them they were knocking Arsenal out of the European Cup at Highbury.

“We found out in pre-season that there is the tremendous interest and love in this club from all over the world,” added Mr Wenger. “Of course we know, from things like the parade in Islington, how popular our club is in London – and we are very grateful for that. We have another example on Saturday and Sunday at the Emirates Cup as the games are a sell-out again.

“For me these games are a real test because we are close to the Community Shield and two weeks before the start of the Premier League. Just behind that we have a qualifier as well for the Champions League. So it’s a measure of fitness, of tactical preparation and just how far we are away.”

The games today are

14:00 Valencia v AS Monaco
16:20 Arsenal v Benfica

Interestingly Arsenal have made much of publicising the points system of the tourney, perhaps in reflection of the way the commentators on BT Sport failed to understand it last year. Here’s the official view.

Points System
The following points system shall apply for the tournament:
3 points for a win
1 point for a draw
1 point for each goal
0 points for a defeat

If two or more teams finish equal on points, the following criteria shall apply:
a) better goal difference
b) if still level – greater number of goals scored
c) if still level – greater number of shots on target (as determined by the Emirates Cup Tournament Committee)

So to the teams. Quite honestly there’s no point my trying to guess how the two sides Arsenal will put out will line up across today and tomorrow. So instead I have tried to create a list of players that we have, noting, occasionally accurately, if they are classified for the purpose of the Premier League as under 21, or home grown. I have also indicated before each player the squad number where they have one.

Corrections please in the box below, so that hopefully we can start to draw up a list of the 25 players that Arsenal are able to register for the first half of the season. Incidentally telling me I am an idiot for making mistakes has been done before, and doesn’t really get us much further. It’s a bit like saying that Untold is fixated on referees, or the media, or Tottenham. It is said over and over again, and besides I haven’t had lunch yet.

BT Sport has started very well – it is almost as if someone has directed their attention to the fact that they are media partners of Arsenal.

They have repeated the point scoring system – the thing they couldn’t understand last year – three times and have been generally positive.

A few mistakes – which is unfortunate given the amount of time they have had to prepare for today, but they have been minor. The anchor suggested that the points system is new for this year, but there was a decent discussion of the fact that building the Ems and staying in the top four all the way through that era was “a work of genius”.

Yep, that’s what they said – Arsene Wenger’s work in keeping Arsenal at the top over 10 years was “a work of genius”.

Wow – and this is BT Sport.

Also an interesting reflection on Valencia, and how close to the top they were just a few years ago. But they have impossible financial difficulties, and their new stadium, unlike Arsenal’s, is just a plan. They have had several years of selling anyone of any value, and finished, I think, 7th last season, after years in the champions league, two CL finals.

It is an interesting contrast with Arsenal – who have built the stadium, and stayed in the Champions League, and stayed solvent.

I’m really excited by some of these new signing and am looking forward to both matches against fairly strong competition.
Arséne’s press conference has been received very positively in most of the dailies. They all seem to be up for him & us.

After all years of hard work now comes the time for sir Wenger to reap benefits of his work. I always believed that sir Wenger is not bigger than arsenal but arsenal are a lot bigger because of Wenger. He deserves positive reception from all quarters.

@Tony I don’t understand y? Everyone fail to understand that Campbell is a home grown player. Coz his been on arsenal books since. He was 17 even though he hasn’t played a single game for us. Anway gents looking forward to seeing most of you tomorrow @ the emirates.

Jnr Gunz – yes I guess you are right . the home grown issue revolved around the registration of the player, and as I see it a loan does not change your registration. So rich clubs could buy up all the youngsters and then loan them out, see which ones make it, and then include them in their 25 as home grown. Not sure anyone has done that however.

@Tony this home grown player idea is a good one. But like in all walks of life the is always a few trying to abuse the system “cough cough chealse cough”. Is it me or some one seems to be moaning about the FFF a lot lately.yes mr mourhino. Anway @ tony how come u got 2 chambers in the line up.unless we signed his twin brother too.

Wilshere, Coquelin and Arteta
Rosicky off Ramsey off Flamini off
Alesxis warming up

BT Sport almost slipped with the commentator complaining that it was almost impossible to keep up with all these substitutions, but the co-commentator quickly ticked him off.

Immediately Benfica scored – long throw in and defence still re-organising after the substitutions.

5-1

BT is now applauding the approach of giving points for goals – so instead of laughing at the stupidity of Arsenal in running a competition that was incomprehensible they are now saying how innovative and forward looking it is.

Well, BT obviously got a slap from someone, they were refreshingly “non-anti-Arsenal” today.

Was pleasantly surprised to see the youth perform well. Bellerin is a good player. Sanogo i wanted to get a goal to settle him, but he took 4, “greedy man”, seriously, another Arsenal signing, who also assists well. Hope Joel fits in the team well, which he should and Arsenal are on their way again.

I just got back to a place with Internet. I looked around again into the home grown business, and from what I can see it doesn’t matter where the person places, or even if they place. It is just the registration. But, maybe I found the wrong definition. Someone brought up an interesting example. Cesc Fabregas is homegrown (for Chelsea) because of the time he spent at Arsenal.

A couple of people mentioned Sanogo getting hurt. I see mentions of an injury a week ago in Google News, nothing today. There was news about him slipping when celebrating his 4th goal. I suppose there will be some people that will say that he still hasn’t broken is duck (I think that is the saying), as the Emirates Cup doesn’t count.

I guess it is 7:30am in the UK, here it is a bit after midnight. I stayed up to see if Northern Lights would occur tonight (a CME was supposed to hit Earth). If there were aurora, they were very faint.

In any event, there are no end of predictions that don’t impress Arsenal fans. I happened across a publication called Arabian Business, and one of their writers has predictions for some EPL teams (EPL, FA Cup, Champion’s League, …). And he admits, he hasn’t a leg to stand on in making his predictions.

But, he fancies Arsenal to win the EPL, and for Spurs to be relegated. He did not predict St. Totteringham’s Day, which surprised me. It is an interesting read.